Nostalgia Through Music

Music is a very big part of my life. It's one of the things I need to survive, and I'm sure a lot of people can agree with me.

One of the things I love about music is how I can attach certain feelings and memories to certain songs. Basically nostalgia. And some of them are so strong, all I can think about while listening to the music is what was going on and what I was feeling at the time that the music was being imprinted into my brain.

I decided to make a list of some bands/albums that have the an element of nostalgia, spread out from childhood to the present.

U2 / Rattle And Hum & The Joshua Tree

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Growing up, my dad loved music. He loved artists that were different, and caught his attention. U2 was a band that he listened to in high school, and when he was raising my brother and I, we would listen to U2 together. From our house on Sequoia Trails, to our road trips to California and Michigan, U2's albums Rattle And Hum, and The Joshua Tree, followed us.

I can still remember listening to the song Pride and driving under huge highway bridges (they were big at the time because I was 7 or 8, and at that age, everything is bigger than it actually is.) while the sun was setting, and the excitement to see my family and more of California was almost unbearable.

On our Michigan trip, I remember waking up in the early morning, in the hotel room, and U2 was on the tv. The vivid color of red, that they always seem to incorporate into their live shows, lit up the room, along with the blue light from outside.

U2 would continue to be a part of my childhood memories. Every time I hear a song from one of those albums, I'm taken back to California, Michigan, and the two houses that I grew up in with my brother. While my dad did introduce us to other bands, like Incubus, Pink Floyd, and Dave Mathews Band, it's U2 that has the strongest nostalgia for me.

Muse / The Resistance, Black Holes And Revelations, & More

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This was another band that my dad had shown to us. I became obsessed with their music, and the strangeness of their lyrics kept me interested. I had just entered my teen years while listening to Muse, which had set a tone for a good 3 years.

On October 8th, 2010, my dad took my brother and I to see them live. It was such a surreal experience. I had idolized and obsessed over and fell in love with their music, and I was finally seeing them in person. Their stage set-up was beautiful. The show opened with three blue/grey towers, covered with cloth that had a projection of animated figures robotically walking down the towers, and abstract music that led up to the start of the song Uprising. As soon as the bass line started, the cloth dropped, revealing the three band members, and the crowd screamed and cheered for them. The beautiful stage, excitement, and the music thumping in my chest was one of the best concert experiences I've had.

On March 10th, 2013, I saw them in concert again, with my whole family.

Twenty One Pilots / Vessel

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I discovered Twenty One Pilots after I had been seeing a lot about them on the internet. I searched them on Youtube, and I clicked on the music video for Guns For Hands. I definitely thought that it was strange, but I liked it because it was different. I listened to more and more of their music, and fell in love completely.

Twenty One Pilots gave me a lot of comfort. Tyler Joseph, the lead singer/songwriter/pianist wrote about emotional struggles, and they spoke to my anxiety-filled little heart. While Vessel introduced me to the band's personality, the band's self titled album kept me company during a time when my family and I were displaced and extremely stressed. Later, the band's most recent album, Blurryface, pleasantly surprised me. The night that they released their first single, Fairly Local, I was so damn excited. I brushed my teeth with shaking hands and the song playing over and over in my headphones.

I have seen this band in concert twice, and both times were an amazing experience. I knew that I came across something special when I started delving into their music.

The Neighborhood / Wiped Out!

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The Neighborhood's album Wiped Out! is a strange case, because it has a "summer in California" type of vibe, but when my brother played it for me, it was around November, and we were driving to a bonfire. Nevertheless, I was pulled into the atmosphere that the band created. I borrowed the CD, and played it in my car for weeks. Every time I listen to it, I'm reminded of the drive to that bonfire, the cold air that surrounded us, and the days afterward when I drove up and down Eastern Ave, singing along to it.

The 1975 / I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It

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When the 1975 released I Like It When You Sleep., in February, I listened to it almost every day about a month or so. The album's atmosphere and mood was so different and calming, I just couldn't listen to anything else. The album starts off brash and almost obnoxious, but ends very quietly and gently.

I listened to this album while I worked with my dad and brother. Since it was February/March, most of the time it was chilly and cloudy, and it went well with the music. I would also listen to it while laying in bed waiting for dinner to be ready, or working on my website. The album created a whole new atmosphere in my mind, and I couldn't get enough of it.

That summer, my brother and I saw them in concert, along with PVRIS. Their performance of Somebody Else was so beautiful, and it took me back to February.

The Weeknd / Trilogy & Starboy

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The Weeknd was another artist that my brother showed me. While his album Beauty Behind The Madness takes me back to the summer of 2015, it's Trilogy and Starboy that I'm currently obsessed with. During October and the first part of November, I listened to Trilogy and hardly anything else. I listened to it when I stumbled out of bed in the morning and got ready for work, then later that night when I went to sleep. His songs would run through my head at work, and I couldn't believe I had been skipping over all of these songs for so long.

When his album Starboy came out, my family and I were in Missouri. I fell in love with the songs Secrets, I Feel It Coming, and Party Monster. The rhythm that they carried made me feel good, and like I was doing something fun, but also new and risky. I listened to them while lying on the futon in the spare bedroom, huddled under blankets, as the cold air leaked through the windows and under the cracks of the doors.